Posted
by
BeauHDon Friday April 14, 2017 @07:05PM
from the something-smells-fishy dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: It's no surprise that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the best-selling game on the Nintendo Switch, a console that just had its strongest U.S. opening ever for the company. But managing to sell more copies than consoles that can actually play it? That's what's happened in the U.S., amazingly -- Nintendo just announced that it sold 906,000 Switch consoles in March along with 925,000 copies of Breath of the Wild. The Wii U version moved almost 460,000 units on top of that, making for total sales of over 1.3 million. Breath of the Wild is now the fastest-selling Nintendo launch title of all time and the fastest-selling Legend of Zelda game ever. Nintendo says it thinks the Switch attach rate of more than 100 percent might be explained by people who bought a limited edition version to collect and a regular version to actually play, though another possibility is that some bought the game before they could find the console itself in stock.

I reserved BotW a few weeks before launch but never got a reservation on the Switch. Then the night of March 2nd I found a bundle-only console for sale online that included BotW. So naturally I opened one copy to play and I have a "sealed in box" copy to keep (neither are "special" or "limited" in any way). I probably should have just returned the extra back to amazon but didn't for no particular reason.

Not sure if that explains the greater than 1:1 attach rate but it could be part of it.

Uh, you realize you can buy BotW electronically right? Download it directly to the consoles internal storage? Reportedly the load times are way better too. I mean some people won't like that. Just seems necessary to go around trying to catch it in stock.

I pre-ordered a Switch and did get a handful of the other titles out there. But let's face it everyone: This was planned hook-line-and-sinker style. On top of a new platform and into the gaming style of Zelda or not --- it's a great game, but the only worthy title out there that has zero competition. I'm not surprised it beat any tracked sales records. What else was everyone going to get excited about?

Wonder if Mario Kart in a few weeks will surpass? Because after that, we're all going to be waiting for that first Mario game around Black Friday/Christmas time.

BotW is certainly head and shoulders and torso and legs and a ladder above everything else out there (Switch or otherwise), but there are a handful of worthwhile games on the Switch.

Snipperclips (download only) is great for 2 players. I believe there's a demo. It's also got some levels for 4 players, but I think there's only 12 or so. I had a group that went through it recently and it was great, but I was disappointed there were so few levels for 4 players. (There's some third mode for up to 4 players, called Party Blitz or something, but I think it's just a time-trial type thing. I haven't tried it.)

Bomberman is Bomberman. It sucked ass when it launched because it had horrendous delay on the controls, but they've since patched that and added more stages and shit (for free). If you have a group who likes to play Bomberman, it's probably worth it if you have the Best Buy or Amazon Prime 20% discount.

Has Been Heroes is an interesting single player title. I think it's only $20. It's pretty challenging, but it can get repetitive.

Puyo Puyo Tetris has a demo out, and it may interest some people. I may pick this one up. I think this has a budget price as well.

There's Blaster Master Zero, which I've heard good things about. Though it's reportedly easy (or at least compared to the original) and short.

2 weeks until Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which is basically a rerelease of Mario Kart 8. It'll be hard to fuck this up, and they've included proper battle stages now.

Arms and Splatoon 2 are coming in a couple of months as well.

And there's plenty of indie / retro stuff on the eShop available now and coming soon, some with free demos.

And the Switch is region free (unless devs explicitly lock a particular title, I guess), so you can create a Japanese Nintendo account and browse the Japanese eShop on your Switch, buy stuff there, and play it under your regular US/whatever account. You may need to buy eShop gift cards from amazon.co.jp or something.

There's Hey Pikmin on the 3DS soon. We'll have to wait for E3 to see if there's anything planned for the Switch.But how will the squeeze that in with all the time they'll spend on the Switch's F-Zero, Metroid, and 3D mainline Pokemon reveals???

(Harsh truth: At E3, Nintendo will focus on the Switch's success, Zelda's upcoming DLC, Arms, Splatoon 2, and Fire Emblem Warriors. Mario Odyssey will be shown behind closed doors only and delayed at least 2 times. The big "surprise" will be a port of Smash Bros f

Why buy a Wii U? and be saddled with an ugly redundant home console that's kind of useless without the tablet, while the tablet is entirely useless without the console?

Wii U is like an Altair or IMSAI 8080, a fugly box that needed a tacky computer terminal attached. Computers got more successful when they filled both the computer and terminal part like the Commodore PET, Apple II and Switch do.

When you consider that the launch lineup was so tiny as to be almost negative, it doesn't come as a shock that the only truly notable title sold as many units as the console.

I still don't see the market for the Switch, given its less-than-competitive performance; it just feels like Nintendo is counting on the gimmick to hit the same lucky timing the Wii did. I'm no expecting much longevity, particularly given the brisk pace that smartphones set as far as portable performance.

For a lot of Nintendo fans it's not about the console at all, it's about Nintendo's games that you can only play on the console. Yes, the Wii was an exception to what I'm saying, attracting a lot of casual gamers with its special controlers but for the hardcore Nintendo fans it's the virtual garuntee of a good Zelda, Mario, Smash Brothers, etc title.

It may be that not everything has to be new all the time. Many uninspired people likely are making chessboards and go-bans as we speak.It's sobering to think that Mafia from 2002 was already a (semi) open world, mission based game with good graphics and recognizably human characters. So, a bit like Watch Dogs but with slower cars and a better game. Battlefield 1942 came out the same year. Now, 2002 is not that early as far as games go but watch the current date. Scary?

Phones may have a few good games or well advertised games, but otherwise there's a million crapware, phones that are too slow, phones that are so fast they don't make some games better, throttling issues, battery issues, control issues. It's like PC gaming in that few people relatively to the population will ever play some high end game (but like PC gaming, 1% of the user base playing a game is 10+ million players/customers)

For one thing, Nintendo Switch has a "low res" display according to some but well, n

It's no surprise that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the best-selling game on the Nintendo Switch... But managing to sell more copies than consoles that can actually play it? That's what's happened in the U.S., amazingly -- Nintendo just announced that it sold 906,000 Switch consoles in March along with 925,000 copies of Breath of the Wild.

Many people around the world buy their games from US based online stores when that game is not readily available from their local game store... These sales will have been recorded as US sales, even if the product might have ultimately been shipped overseas.

The iPhone exhibited a similar phenomenon during 2007-2009 when it was not yet readily available around the world. Apple reported significantly higher US unit sales than AT&T was reporting new subscribers - even though the phone was network locked to AT&T in the US - that was because many iPhones were being purchased in the US for use on other (often overseas) networks (after being jailbroken).

Many people around the world buy their games from US based online stores when that game is not readily available from their local game store... These sales will have been recorded as US sales, even if the product might have ultimately been shipped overseas.

Except I'm fairly certain everywhere the Switch is sold, Nintendo makes sure stores are overstocked with Zelda. Every store I go into has copies of Zelda on the shelf - it's like Nintendo intentionally shipped every store with 10% more copies of Zelda tha

I was going to buy one but after the bad press about screen quality I asked the store to allow me to see the screen before I purchased it and they (Best Buy) refused to allow me to open one prior to purchase, so I deferred. Not that it hurt their sales at all, some lady took the one I had from my hands and bought it.

I was going to buy one but after the bad press about screen quality I asked the store to allow me to see the screen before I purchased it and they (Best Buy) refused to allow me to open one prior to purchase, so I deferred. Not that it hurt their sales at all, some lady took the one I had from my hands and bought it.

Because the Switch is a console/portable hybrid it would be a good idea to put a screen protector on as soon as you brought the device.

Most people who get a new mobile or handheld get screen protectors put on (some mobiles actually come with them) from purchase but there are always some who honestly think that there is no need for the additional small expense. Usually, these people get very upset in a few months when scratches appear on the unprotected screen when a bit of forward-planning could have pre

It is more an issue of dead pixels than of potential scratches or such in the future. I doubt that I would use the device as a portable much anyways, I was mainly looking to play the new Zelda game and would very likely use it most of the time hooked to my big screen. I do very little portable gaming even on my laptop. But I do enjoy a good session of FPS shooter, and I love old school RPG's, almost as much as I like table top pen and paper role playing. The GF's kid and I have a blast teaming up in Battlef

Nah I lucked into a wonderful women who had a great kid by a deadbeat loser Dad. I really enjoy having the kid around and I did not have to go through the terrible 2's with him. He's old enough that he appreciates me, and I can like him as a person. The best part is his mother likes Hockey and drinks beer as well. I met her at a Sharks game, we both have season tickets...